Flickr ditching Facebook and Google sign-in for Yahoo accounts

Some viewed it as inevitable that Yahoo would flip the switch for both Facebook and Google sign-in options to be disabled in favor of its own account system. The popular photo sharing service offers a solid platform for hobbyists to upload and share snaps they've captured with smartphones and/or more professional setups. If you access Flickr through Facebook or Google, you'll soon be prompted to create a new Yahoo account.

"Starting this month, we will be requesting that everyone use a Yahoo username and password to sign in to Flickr. Eventually, Facebook and Google sign in will be removed."

The change hasn't yet occurred so rest assured you're able to access stored content on your Flickr account using connected accounts, but once Flickr removes support for both social networks there'll be no looking back. If you require a helping hand with moving across, or would like to find out more details on the switch, be sure to hit up the Flickr support forum (linked below).

What do you make of the changes? Will you continue using the service with a new Yahoo account? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

I have nothing against yahoo but with the increase in site hacking I am going to be much more stingy about creating new accounts. I most certainly won't be making a yahoo account just to use flickr. I'll just find an alternative.

IIRC, some time after Yahoo bought Flickr, they merged Flickr accounts into Yahoo accounts and you had to log in with a Yahoo account. A while later, they added the option to sign into Yahoo (and therefore Flickr) using Facebook or Google. Now they're going back to just signing in with the Yahoo credentials.

Like yourself, I just dusted off my old Yahoo login. Still worked over a decade later! I reckon most people that used the web before Facebook, have got a Yahoo account, as that was the place to chat and play games.

I still use my yahoo account on a regular basis, had since I think '96 or so. I like the idea of disabling facebook and google log ins. Why give someone access to all your accounts? Just seems safer to me to use different log in info.

My old Yahoo account got hacked so many times and sent out spam emails to everybody in my mailing list that I ended up just deleting it. It wasn't much of a loss for me, I was already pretty heavily invested in Gmail at that point. But it kinda left a bad taste for Yahoo since I've never really had problems like that with other email services I've used. So, I guess I'm just going to abandon Flickr now as well.

I haven't used Flickr in so long.... The last time I was using Flickr I was using Yahoo! So you know that was a long time ago. The only think Yahoo! had going for it was the messaging/IM. That was cool. Oh well. Goodbye Flickr. Forgot you were even around.

No thanks. I deleted my Yahoo years ago after for some reason they couldn't reset my password for like two years. Don't need or want another one. Guess that's not a terrible thing though, after them I found Hotmail who eventually led me to Google :).

I've been using my Yahoo account for this as well; it seems silly (to me) not to.

Think of it this way too... instead of complaining or ditching the service because they're dropping Facebook and Google integration, your account is becoming more secure / less likely to be locked out.

If you screw up with Facebook and they lock your account, ban you, or if someone hacks your Facebook account... what does that do for every other site where you've been signing in through Facebook? The same could be said about any other service you use to sign in "everywhere".

Using your Yahoo! account to sign in here is different though since they own Flickr; same company, same sign in. Just like signing with your live account is ok to do with Skype, Hotmail, Xbox, etc. I'm not saying you can't get hacked and lose access to these services, but your less likely to lose access to "everything" if you use different accounts to sign in. And DIFFERENT PASSWORDS.

The option is nice, but over all it's not secure. Look at it as they're enhancing security instead of inconveniencing you.

I find it particularly odd that people are berating Yahoo for this. Last time I checked you can't log into Facebook or Google services by using your login credentials from a 3rd party. This makes perfect sense if for no other reason than for security. But hey, people on the internet need something to complain about and I guess this is the current cause celeb.

Those services never had the ability. When you change something like this, and force people to create yet another useless account to remember its down right annoying. I have no stake in this as I do not use Yahoo or Flickr...so this is merely my 2 cents...but I see where everyone is coming from. By the way...most people I know log into facebook using their email address...whether it be gmail, yahoo or otherwise.

And yet they have not updated their Windows Phone app since like Windows Phone 7
Flickr boasts about being the best community for photographers, and yet ignores the best phone cameras that exist in the market

I'm the founder of Arcivr – a private photo sharing site that launched last month. We're about to allow our users to sign into Arcivr with their Facebook credentials. I understand why Yahoo is removing FB / Google auth, they're Yahoo! FB and Google mine user data from authenticating Flickr accounts. And Flickr users are one of Yahoo's best/quickest sources of Yahoo account growth – even if users are "strong-armed" into joining.

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